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Drought creates tension along both banks of the Jordan By Zafrir Rinat Tags: drought, jordan A thin trickle of murky, polluted water made its way from the Jordan River to the Dead Sea this week, the normally small amount of water further diminished by drought. The situation has made it difficult for farms and towns on the Jordanian and Israeli sides of the river to continue farming or hosting tourists on the Dead Sea's northern shores. Last week the water crisis almost sparked a diplomatic incident between Israel and Jordan. The Jordanians said Israeli farmers dammed the river beside the Adam Bridge (also called the Damia Bridge) and stopped the flow of water southward so they could irrigate their crops. Senior Defense Ministry officials contacted the Israel Defense Forces, which quickly dispatched earthmoving equipment to clear stones from the river and prove that Israel is not deliberately stopping the river's flow. The river was cleared under the watchful eyes of a Jordanian military commander, and the Jordan Valley Regional Council denied Jordanian charges that it had dammed the river. Dov Kuznetsov, director of the region's water management, explained that the council has a water allocation for farming and usually uses only a third of it due to the poor quality of the water. Advertisement "Over a month ago the drought caused the Jordan River to recede to a level we have never seen here before," says Kuznetsov. "This caused boulders to appear, which looked like a dam or blockage. The Jordanians, whose distress is understandable, thought this caused the shortage of water and that clearing the rocks would change this situation. Israel cleared away the rocks, but the water is not flowing." Council chairman Dubi Tal says Israeli farmers are short of water, which is particularly necessary for irrigating their date plantations. "Now is a critical time for irrigation, and the farmers fear their crops will be damaged," says Tal. The Jordan River once brought 1.3 billion cubic meters of water to the Dead Sea annually, but that figure dropped to less than 200 million cubic meters after the river's sources were diverted for human needs. A large percentage of what remains comes from waste water from the agricultural communities and salt water diverted to the river from salty springs near the banks of Lake Kinneret. Some of the Jordan's water still comes from springs and streams that flow directly into the river. A few times in recent years, the river almost stopped flowing altogether due to a rainfall shortage. Some experts believe that for this reason the flow of waste water to the river should not be halted, since it dilutes the river, reducing its salinity and making the water fit for agricultural use. Gideon Bromberg, the Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, says this is the first summer the Jordanian-Syrian unity dam has been operating, catching the winter floodwaters in the Yarmuk River, a major tributary of the Jordan River. "The dam has not yet fulfilled its purpose, as there have been no floods," says Bromberg. "But it has stopped water from flowing into the Jordan." To the south of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, the little water remaining in the Jordan River spills into the Dead Sea near the area where the Megilot Regional Council has developed beaches that attract more than 100,000 tourists annually. The maintenance of the beaches has become more complicated due to the receding level of the Dead Sea. Megilot is well aware of the situation at the Jordan's estuary. The council now owns the only boat that Israel operates in the northern Dead Sea, for tracking the inflow from the estuary. Council sources relate that the beach houses built in recent years and the access boardwalks to the beach are now far from the water, leaving a wooden pier that stands high and dry. "We miscalculated the extent that the water receded," says Megilot council chairman Motzi Dahaman. "Now we are planning a pier that will float a few dozen meters into the water. That way we won't have to chase the edge of the beach." Megilot's council has joined forces with its southern neighbor, Tamar Regional Council, in an effort to save the Dead Sea. "I have no professional knowledge for determining the best way to stop the receding shoreline," says Dahaman. "One thing we know is that we also need to restore the flow from the southern Jordan River, which is a very important tourism and religious asset." Friends of the Earth is now trying to formulate a rehabilitation plan for the Jordan River based on scientific estimates. Yale University experts will be arriving in Israel next week to determine how much water is needed to rehabilitate the river. Bromberg says this will be possible after Israel and Jordan adopt more efficient, less wasteful methods for using water sources, at which point they will be able to return to nature some of what has been taken from it. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah's pleasure For Israelis, the release of Kuntar is a form of self-inflicted torture. Exchange timeline How the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah will be carried out.

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